Kral the Black Knight
Kral, otherwise known as the Black Knight, is a mercenary knight who originates from Wild Space. He is known for his lack of morality when on the job, though has led to conclusions on how he acts otherwise. While he is indeed mostly void of emotions in the line of duty, in his off time, he does show emotion, despite not being able to express it vocally, and mostly through facial expression and body language. Kral was trained in the ways of knighthood by a nameless organization, known only by their representative on his home world, "Benefactor 10", who themselves has never been seen. This training made him into a highly skilled swordsman and hand to hand combatant, and further training after being released from the organization in ranged combat has done the same in that regard, making him a rather well rounded warrior in terms of weapon usage. He is currently undisposed. History (Note: Most of the following is not public IC.) Kral was born in Wild Space, on a small planet inhabited by mainly pirates and other forms of criminals, and was (is) mainly controlled and supported by a group only known to the planet's inhabitants as "the Benefactors." As it is likely obvious, the identities of these beings are obscured, and the benefactors are referenced as numbers if commencing planetary politics via proxy of their trusted "employees". The exact number of benefactors there are is unknown, and the numbers of which have gone as far up as "Benefactor 367." Of course, this would mean that there is at least 367 of them. It is also unknown whether the benefactors are in fact singular beings or representatives of organizations, bar Benefactor 10, who represents a rather old training organization, the organization that trained Kral. Stepping away from describing his planet's political system, Kral was taken from his family at an early age, presumably by the organization Benefactor 10 represented. He was pre-chosen by the said organization - whether this was by right or pre-determined ability is actually unknown. While he knows where his home planet is, he does not remember in slightest who his parents were, and it is also unknown if they were killed to avoid them recognizing him if he ever returned to his planet, which he seldom does in the first place. The training commenced off world, specifically on a near moon within a heavily secured base of sorts. Kral was trained constantly from the time he was taken to whenever it was his training was deemed complete. He was first trained to lack any empathy, essentially making him a sociopath though ruthless conditioning and mental augmentation. It was at that point he became mute, and being as he had not been actually fighting, this was likely a consequence of his conditioning. It is unknown if becoming a mute was intended or not, as actual documentation on the training methods is obviously confidential. The training also includes heavy schooling, mainly in military areas. After being trained to be a near literal sociopath, he was then trained in combat, both hand-to-hand and sword-fighting, both of which involved full force fighting, sword injuries and all. He would often kill, or severely injure lower skilled sparring partners without real care, due to the aforementioned forced sociopathy. Combat training also include physical enhancement and conditioning, and there is nothing much to say in the way of training there aside from near all of his free time being consumed by focus on physical enhancement (working out), physical conditioning went hand in hand with the actual combat training, as injury was possible and quite frequent. It's said that in his teenage years, he was able to kill a fully grown and physically fit sparing partner, whether this is true or not is unknown. Field work began after combat training, to provide real experience in combat. The organization would often assign tasks for him, mostly within close proximity to his home planet and its system. He was very efficient in his tasks, and it did not take long for the organization to deem him ready to dawn the Black armor that he wears today. After being deemed finished with training, he gained his armor, his main sword, Kerrhaal, and his energy shield, and he was sent off to do what he pleased (or rather what didn't please him, nothing really pleases him). He soon became a mercenary taking to what he knew. Near all of this work commenced in Wild Space. Along the way, he was trained in ship piloting, soon after purchasing a corvette, named the Nuria and a small crew, trained in gun usage, buying his pistol after this, and at some point gained the Lifesbane Twins. He also near never visits the facility he was trained in, as he has no actual loyalty to the organization. The only way they would be able to get him to work for them is if they payed him, and they have attempted to get him to work for them for free. This attempt did not end well for the proposing being. Equipment Armor Being a knight, Kral prefers using heavy plate armoring, though his own armour is quite unique in the fact that it is a plate armor/nanosuit hybrid, the nanosuit components being akin to Tecton's Crytech Nanosuits. This is the main reason he is able to operate the suit with little to no hinderance, being as joint areas are mostly nanofibril muscle. Usage of Nanofibril muscle comes with the inherent consequence that is is bonded to his body, and would be extremely painful to remove. The plating is Tungsten Carbide, providing high durability and heat resistance, with the repercussion of weight. The armour, while it seems like it would not, is able to survive a vacuum, as the slits in his helm are sealed (and are in fact purely cosmetic, he has full vision when the visor is down), along with the rest of his armor, and the armor even has a rebreather and emergency oxygen supply, though if he is exposed to a vacuum for a long duration of time, his suit will force him into stasis, as the rebreather has limited reuse of his breath, and the emergency oxygen storage is quite small. In stasis, he would presumably last a few weeks in space, assuming nothing happens in the meantime. Like regular Crytech Nanofibril Muscles, the cells used are able to absorb ambient energy, such as solar and radioactive, in order for the muscles to function at full capacity. If he uses up the energy collected by the muscles too quickly, they will begin taking from an emergency generator, which has limited production capacity, but does store energy over time in banks. Also akin to their Crytech counterparts, they can shift to aid in three areas: View, Armor, and Stealth, these functions are dependent upon the aforementioned energy either collected and stored or produced (and stored) by the energy generator. View mode assists in alternate vision types, such as thermal or night vision and with this he can "zoom in" and enhance on areas. Note that this is only available when his helm is on and the visor is down and sealed. Armor mode increases the durability of his armor by a significant amount, but is the most taxing when he is actually using it (being hit), it does not, however, consume energy when he is not being attacked, and it does slow his movement by a fair amount. Stealth mode makes his figure near completely invisible, though a trained eye (or cybernetic one) would be able to spot the slight distortions in the air around his figure. This mode decreases his armor's durability, and becomes more taxing on energy supply as he increases in speed and armor usage, therefore, while he does not necessarily have to move slow, it is prefered to do so when in use in order to conserve energy. Weaponry Kerrhaal Kral is mainly a melee fighter, as such, he uses bladed weaponry most of the time, Kerrhaal being his main weapon. Kerrhaal, like his armor, is unique in the fact that all components of the weapon are modular and adjustable, all parts being locked firmly in place once he removes its "key." The sword has its own energy generator, usually located within the grip, though this can be interchanged to where the center of the hilt contains said generator, and can even be configured to have both, and thus increase the energy production, in turn increasing the Ion function's power. The generator(s) is/are unable to supply energy to his armor, mainly due to the fact that the generators would not produce enough energy. Heavy Gauss Cannon One of his more recently acquired weapons is his Heavy Gauss Cannon, which, as its name implies, is a large rail gun. It has two modes: Its normal firing mode, which allows for rather quick fire, and its "siege", or overcharge mode, which increases the power to the weapon's rails, propelling the weapon's nickel jacketed tungsten rounds at even greater speeds than in its normal state, giving the projectile more penetrating power, even to the point that one round can penetrate through most organic targets. In siege mode, the weapon fires quite slow, this being an effect of having to charge the rail from its normal state. Apart from the regular flachette ammo, he also has armour piercing sabot rounds, which, as made obvious by the name of the round, makes the flachettes far better against armour. When not in use, he will either not have the cannon, or it will be holstered on his back. Pistol While used on rare occasions, Kral has a rather basic Ion pistol by his side at all times, merely for emergency reasons. The pistol's model originates somewhere in Wild Space, and it looks rather rudimentary, but it will get the job done, if need be. Other Energy Shield For defense apart from his armor, Kral has an energy shield emitter located behind his armor's bracer shield which, like the slits in his helm, is mainly cosmetic. It is unlikely that the normal bracer would ever be of much use against foes with energy weaponry, despite it being made out of tungsten carbide. The energy shield is his main defensive object, and, quite obviously, is able to be toggled on and off. The shield runs off of its own power source, which is, like his weapons' generators, is unable to connect to his armor and aid in energy production, as the difference would be rather minute. Kral can also alter its general shape, though only to other shield forms, and nothing like a weapon, and inherently, the larger the shield is, the more power it draws, the less usage Kral can get from it, this implying that he rarely shifts it from it's default oval shape. Castle Craentich Castle Craentich is Kral's home, and, as its name implies, it is a castle. It is based on a small winter planet located somewhere in Wild Space, where Kral and the castle's staff are the only known inhabitants. The castle is built into a mountain, all of the living space being held in the mountain itself, with the only exposed areas being the courtyard, a balcony overlooking the courtyard, the entrance, bridge, and landing/docking area, the latter of which is located adjacent to the mountain. The castle has a staff of around fifteen people, which are present at all times and live within the castle, with five maids/butlers, four kitchen staff - including a chef - and six castle guards. While it may not seem like it at first glance, due to its medieval style construction, the castle in fact has a state of the art security system in place, including force fields, autonomous turrets, and surveillance systems, amongst other components. This is where Kral spends a fair amount of his free time, when he isn't spending it in training for new skills. Barely anyone outside of the castle staff, and his ship's crew has seen the castle, let alone set foot in its walls, so it's safe to assume that one would have to be quite close to the mute Black Knight to be invited to his abode. Guards Craentich The Guards Craentich are the castle guards of Castle Craentich, to be present in the event that the castle is discovered, and is subsquently raided. There are currently six guards in service under Kral - formerly seven, until Calia was "promoted" to Black Squire - of which, contrary to Kral's own training, are concentrated on, and highly skilled in ranged combat and ranged weapon usage, while they are only trained in the basics of blade martial artistry, to start. This is not to say that they are unable to hold their own in melee combat however, they are far more skilled in it than the average person, though in comparison to the Black Knight, or any other highly skilled melee combatant, they wouldn't be a challenge. Due to these facts, they favor ranged combat, and could outclass Kral in that regard. Guard Craentich armor keeps with the general theme of the castle and Kral himself, a medieval looking style, though made with modern materials - mostly, titanium carbide and a carbon nano-weave body suit - and user enhancing components, such as bionics, a heads up display, and a personal energy shield. Weaponry wise, they have a full assortment of firearms to choose from in the castle's armory, though all of them have a, albeit mostly ceremonial, but still usable, sword. Coupled with the castle's security systems, these six guards, though low in number, can be highly lethal. Trivia *Kral is mute; It is unknown when this started, or if he can actually talk, but he does not. The only thing he is heard making is grunts and the like. *Kral is skilled with ranged weapons; Though this near never shows, Kral is very skilled in using ranged weapons effectively, and legend has it, he landed a headshot with his pistol from hundreds of meters away. Again, this is only a legend, and has not been confirmed. *Kral - or at least his visage - is very old; Sightings of the Black Knight date back as far as a millennia, though it is unknown if this was in fact Kral himself, or some earlier generation, which would imply that the Benefactor 10's organization trains a new Black Knight every time the previous one dies. It is also possible that there are, in fact, multiple, Kral being the most prolific. Gallery Kral FB.jpg|Kral, Full Body Kerrhaal.jpg|Kerrhaal, Kral's Main Sword Kerhaal Hilt Closeup.jpg|Closeup of Kerrhaal's Hilt cameron-kerby-gauss-profile-02.jpg|Kral's Heavy Gauss Cannon 243d705a02e750911f459ffc48146326-d9xjzo5.jpg|Kral's Ion Pistol, Nagant Model Kral's Energy Shield.jpg|Kral's Energy Shield, Active scythe_class_corvette_by_orpheus7.jpg|''The Nuria'', Kral's Ship Kral Castle.jpg|The Entrance to Castle Craentich ariel-perez-ftp.jpg|Guard Craentich Armor Category:Characters Category:Status: Alive Category:Knights Category:Mercenary Category:Swordsmen